Testimony continues in the murder trial underway in Eighth Judicial Court in Hopkins County. TTilton Joshua Isaiah Mapps, 21, is being tried for the murder of Jonathan Trahern Young. Mapps is accused of the murder of Young at Pacific Park on June 8, 2015. On Monday, Assistant District Attorney Matt Harris Harris had begun opening arguments stating that the shooting developed over time due to an argument between Kendall Frazier and K C Macon.
Tuesday morning, Frazier took the stand testifying that neither Young nor Maria Hawthorne, who was with Young and Frazier at Pacific Park that night, had in their possession a weapon. During Frazier’s testimony, Mapps seldom looked up from the defense table and when he did, he looked at Frazier only briefly. A few glances were cast toward the jury by Mapps during the testimony of Frazier. Frazier testified that he saw Mapps shoot Young at close range once. Then, according to Frazier, Young turned to run away and Mapps shot him several times before Young fell to the ground. He said that Young had been baited into a fight with Mapps by Dillon Burk. Frazier said his “…friend got shot over stupidity.”
Frazier said he chased Mapps and saw him get into a Silver Nissan parked on Ross Street. He said he could not see how many were in the auto as it pulled away. Assistant District Attorney Harris asked Frazier if the person whom he saw shoot Young was in the courtroom and asked him to point to that one present. Frazier pointed at Mapps and acknowledged that Mapps was the one he had observed.
Frazier stated that before the shots he heard someone yelling, “Don’t pull that out of your pocket or you will be sorry.” He stated that Hawthorne did not leave the scene and stated again in testimony that neither Young nor Hawthorne had a handgun.
Harris asked Frazier if he was on probation for delivery of a controlled substance and Frazier answered “Yes.” The Defense Attorney asked Frazier if he had been jailed for burglary of a habitation and Frazier said yes. Under cross examination, Frazier told the defense attorney that he could see Young and Mapps under the lights at Pacific Park. He testified that he knew Dillion Burks, the one he said had encouraged a fight between Young and Mapps, but he did not know him well. Frazier also admitted that he told police that he thought K C Macon had something to do with the shooting. Frazier said he had gone to Macon’s house on Whitworth Street twice and “…had words…” with Macon. The second time he journeyed to Macon’s house on the night of the shooting Young had driven him there in an auto. He stated Young did not get out of the car or become involved in the conversation. Asked if anyone was smoking marijuana that night, Frazier said there were some smoking but that Young and Hawthorne were not.
To assist in confirming Frazier’s ability to see clearly Mapps and Young, ADA Harris produced two overhead pictures of Pacific Park and asked Frazier to show where he was standing and where Mapps and Young were standing at the time of the incident. Frazier said he was attracted to where the incident occurred when he heard gun shots further away from the scene but in the Park and again when Hawthorne screamed his name as the altercation between Young and Mapps began.
There was a shooting in Pacific Park that same evening prior to the Mapps-Young incident.
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